A Solution for Heavy Containers

Container gardening continues to be hugely popular, and many gardeners love to experiment with large containers, mixing and matching edibles, flowers, and even small shrubs. However, large containers have some drawbacks. They take a lot of potting soil to fill and can be heavy and cumbersome to move around. Since most flowers and edibles only need 8 to 10 inches of soil for their root systems, some gardeners fill the bottoms of large containers with crushed rock, broken pots, or packing peanuts to save on potting soil and make the containers lighter. Now, there's a new product that can help.

Better than Rocks is a 100 percent recycled plastic mesh that fits into any size pot. Unlike rocks or pot shards, the mesh keeps soil from falling to the bottom of the pot and clogging the drainage holes or washing away through the holes. Excess water can easily drain through the mesh. You can use Better Than Rocks to fill as much as one-third of the pot volume. The mesh is lightweight and easy to clean so it can be reused each year.